Liberal groups strike back at Facebook

Progressive and environmental groups are declaring open warfare against Facebook, escalating their frustration over pro-oil, anti-Obamacare ads being sponsored by Mark Zuckerberg’s immigration reform campaign.

A coalition of activist organizations — including MoveOn.org, the Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters and Progressives United — said Tuesday they will suspend their paid Facebook advertising for at least two weeks.

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Zuckerberg-backed ads

“Leaders in the technology community have every right to talk about how immigration reform will benefit their businesses,” former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), who founded Progressives United, said in a statement. “But instead, FWD.us has chosen a strategy that’s condescending to voters and counterproductive to the cause of reform.”

Each organization has committed to pulling their existing ads or holding off on the purchase of new ads for at least two weeks, and some groups are considering doing so for longer, Progressives United spokesman Josh Orton said.

The temporary ad boycott is the latest widening in an already ugly rift between Zuckerberg's advocacy group, FWD.us, and liberal organizations that share the same goal of reforming U.S. immigration policy.

The dispute blew up last month after two subsidiaries of FWD.us — one GOP-leaning, one Democratic — began running television ads that tout the conservative credentials of Sens. Lindsey Graham and Mark Begich.

The ads praised Begich (D-Alaska) for trying to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling and included clips from Graham criticizing President Barack Obama's health care law and his handling of the Keystone XL pipeline. Graham (R-S.C.) is a key member of the Senate Gang of Eight, which is trying to reach an immigration deal.

A FWD.us official said the ads in question had been scheduled to be on television for only one week. After running for the full week, they are no longer on the air. But the ads remain on the websites of the FWD.us subsidiaries, which stand by the ads.

A Facebook spokeswoman declined to comment.

FWD.us has previously said the ads are meant to show support for lawmakers who take the politically risky step of backing changes to immigration laws.

“FWD.us is committed to showing support for elected officials who promote the policy changes needed to build the knowledge economy,” FWD.us spokeswoman Kate Hansen said in a statement last week.

“Maintaining two separate entities, Americans for a Conservative Direction & the Council for American Job Growth, to support elected officials across the political spectrum — separately — means that we can more effectively communicate with targeted audiences of their constituents.”

It's unclear how much the boycott will hurt Facebook, which reported last week that it had $1.46 billion in quarterly revenue, up 38 percent from the same quarter last year. The company has 1.1 billion users, vastly more than the Sierra Club's 1.4 million members.